How to Choose the Perfect Sunglasses Tint for You

Sunglasses tints enhance your vision by adjusting contrast and reducing glare for specific activities, but the color doesn’t affect UV protection. Instead, focus on finding lenses with 100% UV blocking capabilities to safeguard your eyes against harmful rays.

Best Sunglasses Tints for Different Activities

Tints filter light in different ways. Some are better at blocking light, while others enhance or distort colors.

Tints can enhance your vision in some cases. You might like the look of one color over or another. But the attractive one may not be the best fit for your lifestyle.

Gray

Gray is a popular neutral tint. It reduces brightness and doesn’t affect your ability to see shapes and details. You can choose gray for:

• Driving
• Outdoor sports such as golf, running, or cycling

Yellow/Orange

Yellow and orange tints increase contrast in hazy, foggy, or low-light settings, making objects appear sharper both indoors and outdoors, though they can distort colors. Choose yellow shades for:

• Snow-related activities
• Indoor ball sports
• Nighttime use
• Driving in the fog

You might prefer different lens colors for the same activity under varying conditions. For example, skiers often use gray or brown tints on sunny days and yellow or orange when it’s snowing or hazy.

Green

Green tints filter some blue light and reduce glare. They also offer high contrast and visual sharpness. Green lenses can be soothing and green light can help improve headache symptoms.

Green also tends to reduce eyestrain in bright light. Choose green for precision sports such as:

Amber/Brown

Amber and brown tints reduce glare and block blue light. They brighten your vision on cloudy days and improve contrast and depth perception without impacting your ability to see details and shapes.

These are especially useful against green and blue backgrounds such as grass and sky. Choose amber and brown tints for:

• Fishing
• Baseball
• Golf
• Hunting
• Cycling
• Water sports

Some manufacturers use synthetic melanin as a lens coating to filter light and protect the eyes. Melanin, the pigment in your skin, helps protect it from sun damage. Makers of melanin-coated lenses claim these lenses protect your eyes from aging due to sun exposure.

Rose/Red

Rose and red tints increase contrast by blocking blue light. They are known for soothing the eyes and may be more comfortable for longer wear. Red tints may also enhance contrast and improve depth perception.

Choose red tints for:

• Better visibility while driving
• Reducing screen glare and eyestrain

Blue

Polarized, blue-tinted glasses can help reduce glare from water or snow. The blue tint can also help with color perception. One study found that people wearing blue-tinted lenses did not perform as well in sports activities. This may be because this color can reduce contrast sensitivity and increase color distortion.

Blue-tinted glasses are thought to soothe the eyes. Whether they prevent eye strain during extended computer use is unclear, as strain often results from blinking less frequently, leading to dry eyes. You can avoid eye strain by taking a 20-second or longer “screen break” every 20 minutes.

Additional Options

When you buy sunglasses, you may also have the option to select additional features such as a mirrored coating or polarized lenses. These features can help reduce reflections and eye fatigue:

• Mirrored lenses: Mirrored sunglasses have a thin metallic coating on the outside. This coating reflects glare away from your eyes. 
• Polarized lenses: Polarized lenses also reduce glare and eye strain. Polarized lenses block the horizontal light waves that bounce off shiny surfaces such as still water or glass. This helps reduce glare and eye fatigue. Polarized lenses can also help you see details more clearly. However, you can’t view an LED screen while using polarized lenses.

Is Darker Always Better for Sunglasses Tints?

Tint is defined as the percentage of light the lens blocks. Commercially available sunglasses have tint intensities that range from light to dark. Lightly tinted lenses have about a 20% tint intensity, while a medium tint is about 50% and a dark tint is around 80%.

A high tint percentage isn’t necessarily better at protecting your eyes from the sun. What matters most is whether your sunglasses provide full UV protection. Darker sunglasses help reduce squinting, which can protect your eyes from fatigue, especially in very bright conditions. Wearing sunglasses also helps reduce eye strain while driving.

Very dark tints may make it harder to see, even in bright light, while light tints may not be enough to reduce squinting. A medium tint is a good general-use lens for most outdoor activities, though this is based more on personal preference since tint does not affect how well-protected your eyes are from UV rays.

Which Tint Should You Choose for Your Sunglasses? 

Choose your tint based on personal preference and the activities you plan to do while wearing sunglasses. Your tint choice doesn’t affect eye safety, but it can help reduce fatigue and improve visibility during specific activities. Consider these elements:

• Whether you live in a sunny or overcast area
• How much you drive
• Whether you play sports or spend a lot of time outdoors
• Your sensitivity to bright light

Also, consider polarized or mirrored lenses if you spend time in environments with a lot of glare, such as lakes or snowy areas.

Are Your Sunglasses Protecting Your Eyes Properly? 

Regardless of the hue, experts have some concerns about tinted lenses and eye health. Wearing sunglasses can give you a false sense of eye protection.

Dark-tinted lenses without proper UV filters can cause more eye damage than not wearing shades at all. The pupil widens in the dark to let in more light, exposing it to more UV radiation.

Additionally, sunglasses sold in the United States are not required to adhere to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recommendations. Lenses that do will likely have a sticker or tag stating lenses meet ANSI Z80.3-2018 UV blocking requirements.

For optimal protection, sunglasses should block at least 99% of UVA and UVB radiation. Look for either one of the following terms on the label:

• 100% UVA/UVB protection
• 100% UV 400 protection 

These lenses, however, only protect against direct UV rays. Indirect sunlight can reach your eyes through the side of the frames or reflect off the back of the lens. In fact, one study found that some sunglasses allow up to 42% of UV rays to reach your eyes.

For better eye protection, buy oversized or wraparound-style frames to help reduce the amount of UV light entering from the sides.

Additionally, look for lenses that have a UV coating on both the front and back of the lenses. Research shows this can reduce overall UV exposure to 7%.

If you are unsure about the quality of UV protection, bring the sunglasses to an optician or ophthalmologist’s office. Eye care specialists may have a UV light meter that can test the lenses’ UV-blocking abilities. Contact them to see if they do.